Post-Week 3 breakdown: The big three continue to dominate

Thank you for subscribing to the High School Sports Weekly newsletter! Here's the latest from our staff after the third week of the football season.

Good morning,

Three weeks of the season have passed, which means it is playoff push or playoff panic time, depending on where your team might stand.

I'm continually reminded that a lot of people every season (parents especially) are new to high school sports and don't spend a lot of time poring over the Illinois High School Association rules.

So here's a quick explanation on the football playoffs. Football is the only IHSA sport where every team does not qualify for the postseason. Slightly more than half of the schools make the playoffs.

Six wins and/or a conference title guarantees a team a spot in the playoffs. Teams with five wins are on the bubble and the tie is broken by each team's "playoff points" total, which is the combined number of wins of all opponents.

It's a bit complicated, but the bottom line is that Week 4 is when playoff dreams start to crumble for winless teams.

Thanks for reading!

Michael O'Brien, High School Sports Editor

Super 25 update

Loyola's Jack Parker (88) runs the ball for a touchdown against St. Rita. | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

The big three (Mount Carmel, Loyola and Lincoln-Way East) continue to dominate. The Caravan and Ramblers obliterated ranked teams on the road in Week 3.

At this point in the season, all the activity is happening at the bottom of the rankings. It's exceedingly difficult to work out which teams to add every week.

It's also always tough to decide what to do with schools smaller than Class 5A. Joliet Catholic is an obvious call. But what about IC Prep and St. Francis and Wilmington?

Last week on Twitter a reader suggested another set of rankings, maybe a top five, for the smaller classes. That's something we used to do for basketball rankings. Back in the two-class system I always had a top five for area Class A teams.

That might be a good idea. I don't see the small schools play very often though, so that's my biggest hesitation.

1. Mount Carmel (3-0) 1

2. Loyola (3-0) 2

3. Lincoln-Way East (3-0) 3

4. Warren (3-0) 4

5. Glenbard West (3-0) 5

Check out the rest of this week's Super 25 rankings here.

Game stories

Six teams from last week's Super 25 lost in Week 3, but none of them were in the top dozen. Check out our Week 3 scoreboard as well as stories from three of the biggest games of the last week.

High school football scores: Week 3

All the scores from around the area.

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Loyola cruises past St. Rita

Junior Will Nimesheim, the Ramblers' featured back this season, has an uncommonly patient running style.

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Lane beats Hubbard to reach 3-0 for the first time in 15 years

Dedrick Dewalt came to Lane embracing change, and it looks like his players are buying in.

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Kenwood's defense locks down Taft

The Broncos' defense blanked Taft until the last five minutes of the game.

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Plainfield North pummels Joliet West with big plays

Undefeated Plainfield North rolled to a 48-0 running-clock win against Joliet West.

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More high school sports news

This week's Four Downs column offers up looks at Prairie Ridge, the area's latest hero kicker and the high school game's Thursday Night Football trend.

Thanks for reading High School Sports Weekly! Is there a high school sports story that we missed? Contact us via email at newsletters@suntimes.com.